Industry News: Nintendo Switch Took Only Four Weeks To Sell Over 500,000 Units In Japan

Mar 30, 2017

Compared with historical data from the same source, we learn that Nintendo’s new console, the Switch, has overtaken 500,000 units sold in Japan as of March 26th.

To be more precise, the console is sitting on a comfortable 519,504 units sold, and took only four weeks to sell its first half a million locally. After a slight drop the week prior, the console bounced up again last week, probably due to solidifying supply and the upcoming Splatoon 2 Global Testfire.

This places Nintendo’s console ahead of the PS4’s trend. Sony’s console sold 439,810 units in four weeks, and took seven weeks to overtake its first half million units. It actually took eight weeks to reach a very similar number to the lateast figure for the Nintendo Switch, 519,773.

When the PS4’s launched back in February 2014, sales declined rather quickly due to the lack of prominent Japanese games on the console, but the Switch doesn’t seem to be suffering form the same issue just yet.

As an interesting note, the two consoles don’t appear to be affecting each other’s sales in any measurable way for now, possibly indicating that Japanese gamers see the Switch more as a portable than as a home console, placing them in fairly different market segments.

That said, the Switch’s trend in Japan is still slower than the Wii U, that took only three weeks to sell its first 500,000 units, moving 557,901 by December 23rd, 2012. That said, comparing the Switch’s initial sales with the Wii U is quite unfair, considering that the older console was released in Japan when the Holiday season was in full swing, and that normally results in a considerable bump in sales.

We’ll keep the situation monitored, and see if the console manages to keep its momentum through the spring and summer.